Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon (review)

This nostalgic yet energetic look at summertime's joys focuses on African-American city girls in South Philadelphia, where "we don have no backyard/ no sof grass rainbow kites mushrooms butterflies"; instead, "we got black magic n brownstone steps/ when the sun go down." The kids don't miss grass and butterflies when they've got street games, the ice-cream man, the corner store, and the rituals of cornrow and cornbread creation at home with their mother and grandmother. Forman's effervescent free-verse celebration (originally published in a collection of her poems) will convey the pleasures of this playful estivation to audiences unfamiliar with this block-as-kingdom world as well as to those conversant with the upside of city summers. Bayoc's paintings in opaque pigments and saturated colors focus on action; though this sometimes deprives the compositions of balance (and the kids' eyes sometimes bug disconcertingly), the style is pop exuberance and the feeling affectionate and festive. Though the squeaky cleanliness of both the streets and the kids' white high-tops emphasizes the idealization of this picture (Joosse's Hot City, BCCB 6/04, or Hesse's Come On, Rain!, 4/99, would make an effective realistic counterpoint), kids can understand taking a rosy view of summer freedom, and they'll itch to join these "fine sistas" on their brownstone steps.